If I worked with a DBA who set the datafile size to UNLIMITED AND AUTOEXTEND ON, I'd kick his arse from one side of the room to the other. That is STUPID IMO! Set AUTOEXTEND ON BUT ALSOset it to a reasonable MAXSIZE (Mine is 2GB for < 8i, 4GB >= 8i). BUT, it also depends on DB size and filesystems. When do you add another? When it hit's your critical limit... maybe 80 - 90% of capacity... whatever. This is why we monitor the DB. Also, the "A" in DBA does stand for Adminstration.